Pulp – That Boy’s Evil Review

When not singing along with the common people it would seem Pulp were experimenting with edgier, electric noise. While this style spearheaded by the late Steve Mackey was never going to maintain a new genre styling for the band, it is not far off what Jarvis Cocker and company ended up doing. Aggressive and off-kilter noise from their bass player made for a jagged and often cynical instrumental device. This is powerful stuff. A “what could have been” avenue of sound which will never come to fruition, and at the time it was rightly avoided. But the benefit of hindsight is we can dive into these studio demos, the recordings which never made the cut for what would be Pulp’s deep and moving magnum opus. The offshoots of those twelve classics are just as strong – niche ideas which Pulp was too exhausted to consider. Yet here we are, with the spoils of That Boy’s Evil.  

Relegated to a mere afterthought for A Little Soul, the work put into That Boy’s Evil is unlike anything else on the album. Closer to Party Hard than anything else, there is a smooth groove running through this one, like stumbling onto a dated radio show playing its theme tune. Title repetition and layered noise from Mackey and Cocker – whose work under The Chocolate Layers did provide some decent moments. This is the best of them. Scratched and mixed, infused with the noise which would ultimately be described on the liner notes in mock fashion as a Motown-style piece. There is nothing close to the sounds of Motown here but instead a feeling of studio excess, a neat mirroring of the rough time Pulp had in recording This is Hardcore. It feels completely removed from what Pulp was doing and would do after this album.  

Instead, it feels like a track made to warn of an impending blowout. Those whining noises which are like a kettle boiling towards the end feel vicious, and the pair hit their limit. It feels like a piece Relaxed Muscle would have turned into part of their live showcases, but it was not to be. That Boy’s Evil instead remains as a mad experiment in sound manipulation. Within is still the same exploration of pornography that the bulk of This is Hardcore would maintain but with a chance to pull the band back to their Sheffield roots. It is likely why the project was ditched. That Boy’s Evil tries to smash two worlds of different ideologies and cultural stances together. Messy results are part of the charm but for the wider release, where That Boy’s Evil fits in remains puzzling. 

Cocker and Mackey make for a tremendous duo and their long-term projects with Relaxed Muscle and Cocker’s solo career are evidence enough of this. But That Boy’s Evil still holds merit, while not fitting into the project at large. Studio meddling at best. Entertaining pockets of noise paired with cultural observations of a city which felt far removed from This is Hardcore. A band headed Stateside with their sound yet remaining on home soil. That Boy’s Evil is an uncomfortable transition – a good bit of sampling fun which tries and fails to marry the elements of working-class thrill with the lift-off of a successful album. But those experiences would appear in This is Hardcore, with more subtlety and success than this song. Worth a listen, but a stretch too far for the band.